Friday, November 13, 2015

No regrets - gay priest sacked by Vatican

Krzysztof Charamsa, who was fired by the Vatican last month after
he publicly announced his homosexuality says he
has no regrets and is planning a book about his experience. The
43-year-old Polish priest also revealed he had a Spanish boyfriend.

"I now feel
better gay and more of a priest than before," he told AFP at a hotel in
the heart of Barcelona, where he now lives in the gay district.

He said he felt "liberated" and "at peace", but still had a lot to say
about the Church, which he accuses of persecuting homosexuals.

"It's
not like the Islamic State (group) that hounds homosexuals by killing
them. The Catholic Church doesn't actually kill people, but it kills
them psychologically," he said. It kills them with its backward stance,
with its reject, contempt and constant preaching against homosexuals."

Charamsa detailed his "New manifesto for gay liberation", which
he plans to hand over to the Vatican in the hope of changing the
Church's stance on homosexuality.

"A
form of new Ten Commandments to apply in this field", it asks the
Vatican to discard Church documents that are hostile towards
homosexuals, such as Benedict XVI's 2005 edict banning bishops from
ordaining homosexuals into the priesthood.

As
such, the manifesto calls on the Vatican to allow gays to become
priests, and also to revise its interpretation of Biblical texts on this
issue.

The manifesto also suggests
kick-starting dialogue with Evangelists and Anglicans, whom Charamsa says
are more open on gay rights, and asks for apologies from the Vatican
"for its omissions and silences, persecutions and crimes against
homosexuals throughout the centuries."

The now unemployed
theology professor hopes to be able to start teaching again at
university
and write a book about his experience as a homosexual in the Vatican. He
would like all homosexual priests to come out of the closet "to show
the Vatican that we exist and that we are good priests."